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| Brooke and I made the basketball team cupcakes for our team dinner Monday night before we left for SAG. |
May 4, 2013
First off, I can’t believe it is actually May! We only have 5 weeks of school left and
then I will be cleaning my classroom, learning to scuba dive and heading home
for the summer. The days have been
flying by and I am faced with all of the material my students should know by
the end of the year…If only they had told us about all the days students missed
for SAG, Christmas pageant and fiesta tipica at the beginning of the year when
we did our scope and sequences…oh well.
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| Lucely gives her speech, one that was done by Michelle Obama |
On April 23 at 4 am I boarded a bus with almost 50 students
and 2 other chaperones. We had a 7
hour bus ride ahead of us to make it Teguc. The good thing about leaving so early…the students were
tired and ride was pretty quite for the first few hours. The closer we got to the city the
louder it got as the students got more and more excited for a week of
competing, socializing and no classes.
As soon as we arrived at the Abundant Life school in Teguc the
competitions began. The art, which
had been sent ahead, was displayed and already judged. Some highlights included 1st,
2nd and 3rd in bracelet, 3rd in scarf making,
2nd in the nature painting and 3rd in photography. The basketball games were first
when we arrived. The boys decided
not to play because they were supposed to play one of the best teams and were
scared of taking a beating. The
girls played ECVA which is the Spanish Tegucigalpa school (There is a bilingual
and a Spanish Abundant Life School there). We got beat pretty badly and I was disappointed because the
girls did not play their best and got angry with each other. They didn’t even do anything we
practiced and gave up even before halftime. I talked with them after and they just said there was no
chance of winning so they didn’t really care, I talked with them about giving
100% no matter the circumstances and being good sports because they didn’t show
that either. Also on Tuesday was
the checkers matches in which we had a male and female both take 2nd
place. Tuesday night the Honduran
sponsored students got to meet their sponsors and enjoyed a dinner with
them. The rest of us ate out and
then we met back up and traveled to the camp which is about 45 minutes out of
Teguc up in the mountains.
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| Indoor soccer team celebrating with students |
Tuesday night was just La Union and Gracias at the camp so
the students enjoyed hanging out and relaxing. That night was tough to get the girls to settle down, but
they finally did fortunately. The
next morning we traveled back to Tegucigalpa where more competitions took place
including the basketball finals, some of the academic tests, and the physical
fitness competition. The two boys
we had competing in physical fitness placed both 2nd and 3rd. We had the ceremonies in auditorium
where a dance troupe performed and the Tegucigalpa students performed a
dance. We heard motivational words
from Pastor Evelio Reyes (the head of everything), and students from each
school reminded us of why we were there.
The school had pizza from Pizza Hut brought in for lunch and then we
headed to the Honduran Olympic Training Center for the running events. It was very interesting to arrive at a
place like this because a place like this in the States would be very well
developed, cost tons of money and be hard to get into, but that was not the
case here. The track was probably
worse than most high schools in the states, there was a fitness gym and a
soccer field that once again was like an un-kept community field in the
States. No matter the case, it is
a cool experience for our students to get to be there. We did very well in the running events:
2nd in female 100 m, 1st in female 4x100 relay, 2nd
in male 4x100 relay, 2nd in male 1500m run, 1st and 2nd
in female 1500m run and almost 3rd (she lost by less than a
second).
After the running events all the students from all the
schools loaded buses and headed out to the camp where we would stay until
Saturday afternoon. When we
arrived the students hung out and had dinner. Unfortunately during dinner the power went out and remained
out for nearly 24 hours. With no
power it made for an early night since the competitions that were planned could
not occur. Thursday and Friday
were both packed full of competitions and I spent a lot of time running around
trying to see as many of them as I could.
Unfortunately for me I was the only female chaperone for La Union which
meant that anytime the girls needed in our cabin I had to be there and since we
are talking about girls, this was quite often. I finally had to put my foot down and start telling them no
because I didn’t want to spend all day in there. Some of the highlights from these 2 days included 1st
place in female chess, 3rd place in male chess, 1st place
in the bible challenge, 3rd place in current events, 3rd
place in sudoku, 3rd place in spelling bee, 1st place in
spanish spelling, 1st place in speech, 3rd place in academics. Thursday night we had the chance to see
skits put on by the other schools (ours did not participate) which were very
funny, the aerobic dance competition which was new this year and very
interesting. Friday night was the
band competition which was similar to a battle of the bands. Some of the bigger schools have
christian rock type bands which participated. Saturday was the big day for La Union because the girls
soccer team had made it to the finals and the boys indoor soccer team were
playing in the finals. The girls
played Tegucigalpa and won 1-0!
The boys played Chatacamas and came out with a huge 7-0 victory. Saturday morning was also the cross
country run around camp which we placed 1st and 3rd for
girls (Nelsy won 1st place for the 5th year in a row) and
3rd for the boys.
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| Alejandra accepts the trophy for the girls soccer team. |
In
the afternoon everyone packed up and headed back into Tegucigalpa. We checked into a hotel and the girls
immediately started to get ready for the Gala that ended SAG. The Gala was held at the Clarion Hotel
which was gorgeous and the school did a really nice job to make it a nice event
for the students. It started out
with the singing competition where we won 2nd place and then they
announced the final placings for the schools. La Union got 3rd overall which is pretty cool
considering our students have the least amount of resources, money, and are
just tiny compared to the other schools.
We could have placed even higher if they did a point system based on the
place but instead the only thing they count is the number of gold medals. Unfortunately for us we had a lot of 2nd
and 3rd places. They served dinner
and dessert and the students just socialized and hung out. Our students always say they hate this
event because the food isn’t good (its more American), but it was clear that
they felt out of place and uncomfortable because everyone always knows them as
the poor students from La Union.
It was fun to see them all dressed up though and at our teacher table we
got double dessert thanks to Robbie hiding our first plates under the table…no
worries though they had plenty of extras.
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| The girls surrounded by students pray after the game with the trophy. |
The students were wild when we got back to the hotel at
about 11 and since we weren’t the only ones at the hotel we had to try to keep
them quiet. They weren’t happy
when we told them they needed to be in a room but it helped with noise. Jake and I patrolled the hallways until
about 1 am and then we retreated bed even though the kids were still up. The next morning we got up and had
breakfast at the school and then headed for home. My favorite part came when we stopped at a little strip mall
for the students to get lunch or snacks and right next door was a Wendy’s! I got a frosty and sandwhich so I was
content for the rest of the ride home.
I was very tired and after unpacking I went to bed and slept for 13
hours! I went to school for the
afternoon and started back to the normal routine of school.
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| Our 2 singers all dressed up and ready for competition |
Luckily we had Wednesday off this week because of a national
holiday so the week went faster and was more relaxing. We were also told yesterday that we
would be given next Friday off so that we can have a 3-day weekend to travel
together as a last hurrah. We are
planning a trip to Tela so we can visit the ocean and beach again since that always
seems to be the most relaxig for us.
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